How To Pray: It Can't End Like This

In this episode, we dive into the power of prayer through the lens of Isaiah 64. Learn how true prayer connects mercy, repentance, and remembrance—while recognizing who God is as our Father and Potter. Isaiah’s cry for mercy shows us how to talk to God, even in our lowest moments. If you’ve ever wondered how to pray or questioned whether God is still listening, this message will remind you: He meets those who rejoice, work righteousness, and remember His ways. We also explore the unthinkable beauty of what God has prepared for those who wait for Him—because sometimes, the greatest move of God comes when we simply belong to Him.

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#pressmovement

Transcript

Press means supply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings, everybody. Welcome to the Press Movement Podcast.

So glad to be with you today. God has been good. I'm actually recording this on a Sunday.

We just left service. Prayerfully, you are going to church somewhere because there is strength in gathering with the believers. Now, it can also kind of be like Noah's Ark, you know, where all the animals were in one place.

And I'm sure that place had to stink a little bit and get quite dirty. And yet it was a place of safety. Whatever you do, get into the ark.

If you need church recommendations, we will get you one. But let's jump into Isaiah chapter 64. This is nearing the end of the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah called the eagle a prophet. He could see what God was doing so clearly. And in chapter 63 and 64, Isaiah is praying.

But the part of his prayer we'll focus on today is Isaiah 64 and 4. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by ear. Neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways.

Behold, thou art wrath, for we have sinned, and those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our unrighteousness are filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.

And there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hands. Be not wrath, very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever.

Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation, our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised thee is burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us very sore? Isaiah is basically praying about, will you let this tribulation in? Will you let it be enough? Will you look upon us and see where we are? And God have mercy.

It is a prayer of mercy, but a prayer of remembrance as well. I'm finding a pattern here as we look at the Bible and we study prayers, that a lot of times, mercy, repentance, and memories are all tied together. And not only those three things, but you can add to that, talking to God about who he is.

Because it is who he is that causes him to ultimately move. It is the kind of God he is, the kind of love that he has for us. And so when I see Isaiah here and he's talking to him as a father, it makes sense.

Some people nowadays would get arrogant thinking, well, I don't always feel like I need to be in second position, or I don't always feel like I should have to dim my light, so to speak, in order to approach God. Didn't he make me? Doesn't he love me? Shouldn't I be celebrated? But it is important to remember that we will never be in God's status. We'll never be high enough.

We'll never be great enough. We'll never be able to intimidate him. He will always be God.

Before we were born, he was, and after we die, he will be. But he chooses to hear us. Even in this trouble that Isaiah is praying about, because the children of Israel are in such trouble.

They're in punishment. They're going through. But Isaiah is going to the father and he starts, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither have I seen, O God, what you have waiting for him.

It is true. We cannot imagine what God has prepared for his people. I love this song.

There's a song by MercyMe that says, I can only imagine. It says, what will it be like when I walk by your side? I can only imagine what my eyes would see when your face is before me. I can only imagine what will my heart feel.

Will I dance for you, Jesus, or in all of you be still? Will I stand in your presence or to my knees? Will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine. And then it says, I can only imagine when that day comes and I find myself standing in the sun. I can only imagine when all I will do is forever, forever worship you.

I can only imagine. And that song is probably one of my favorites. I think it's one of the greatest songs ever written.

But as great as it is, we cannot imagine what God has stored up for us. He is going to blow our minds. I remember watching somebody once get a birthday card and in the card, they got a check.

Now they're used to getting checks for their birthday. They may get what some would consider a big amount and others would consider it small. They could get $50 or maybe on a great day, a hundred.

And so they're used to getting this every year for their birthday. But as time progressed and they got older, they opened a card and they just stood there. Their jaw dropped.

You could tell they were happy, but they were speechless. This card had more zeros than they had seen before and a comma too. And they didn't know what to do with that because they were expecting what they normally got and appreciative of what they normally got.

So when it was bigger than they could imagine, they just stood in awe. God is going to do that for us. As much as we imagine heaven, as much as we get glimpses of being in his presence, as we worship him and talk to him, and we feel his peace overtake us.

We know he's with us and you feel that help, that courage come to you in the form of his presence. We still cannot imagine the jaw dropping, awesome moment that we will see him as he is. And we'll finally see what he's been saving us for all along.

A lot of times we use that word, I'm saved, I'm saved. And we talk about just our salvation status. But why is our salvation status known as saved? I would say that's because he has saved us as in rescued us, but he's also saving us for the future.

He's rescuing us and setting us aside from what will come and for what will come. Can you imagine what we'll finally see, what we'll finally hear, how we'll finally get to touch him? Isaiah brings this up and he says to God, you meet those that rejoice and work righteousness and they remember, but you're mad right now because we sinned. We went off course.

The word sin literally means to miss the mark. Whatever course we were in, we detoured. But in the continuance of those things, when we keep those things up, those things save us.

When we work righteousness, when we rejoice in him, when we remember him, he said, but we are unclean thing. This is our status. This is where we sit right now.

We're unclean and we're like filthy racks. We're like spotted, stained. And we all do fade away as a leaf.

Our time is up. We bloom for a moment. We look good for a couple months.

And we're done. Our time is so brief in God's eyes. And he says, and our iniquities are just, they're taking us away.

He points such a picture of such a helpless people coming to a great God. And he goes on to call him in verse eight. He calls him father.

You are where we came from. You're the one that's stronger than one that came before us. The one that knows the inner workings of our DNA.

The one that made us who we are. And you're still shaping us today because when you think about a father, yes, he has a role in seeing that you're born. And then he has another role in rearing you and shaping you just like a Potter.

And he says, you are our father. You weren't just there when we were born, but you know, our inner workings, you know, our DNA, you know who we are, you know what we are and why we are. But you're not just a father.

You are the Potter. You're shaping us and molding us into what we must be. You have a vision for us.

You're not just making something willily-nilly. You have a plan for the clay that's in your hands. And we are your work.

So God, don't be angry. Don't hold onto our sins. I beg you because we're yours.

There are some things my kids can get away with because they're mine. They can walk in my room and literally take stuff out of my bathroom. And I don't see it again.

Just last night, I was looking for something. I had to go to my daughter's room to get like five things that are mine. There's nobody else in my world who can walk into my space and take my things.

And although I'm kind of fussing at her, really, it doesn't matter that much because she's mine. She's mine. And I would give her what I have if it makes her better or if she needs it.

Some things we ask God to do just because we belong to him, not because we deserve it. And that's what Isaiah is saying. Look, we're in iniquity.

We're messed up, but you're our father. We're in your hands. We need you to do this.

Why? Because you're you and we come from you. Can you hear the power that God also has imparted to his New Testament church, allowing them to be the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus? Galatians 3, 26 and 27 says, For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And then he goes on in Galatians 4 and 6 and says, Because you are sons, have I sent forth the spirit into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

So he says, because you've been baptized, because you have my spirit, you are my sons. He carries that on to us and allows us to be the salt of the earth. Matthew 5 calls us.

We can't lose our savor. We're the light that can't be hit under a bushel. We're the city that's set up on a hill.

We are the ones who get heaven's attention in the New Testament. That is the blessing we have of sonship. And so as we look and we see Isaiah crying out about the desolation, he's seeing that the house is not the same where his father's once praised.

That is burned up, is torn down. All the good things that were built are torn to waste. When we look around and we can see that there's struggle around us, that the churches that once were thriving are failing.

We can see that people who generations ago knew God no longer know him. Their grandchildren don't know him. Their nieces and nephews don't know him.

And we can see where it used to be better than it is now. We have the privilege of saying to our father, but you are our father. And we are the work of thy hand.

We're not talking about how great we are, because somewhere along the line, something was dropped. So we can't even petition him with our own greatness. But because you are who you said you are, God help us.

Just like Isaiah, we get to ask, will you let it in like this? And I guarantee you because God is God. And we already know he has a plan that's not seen, not heard, not understood yet. He's not anticipating an end just yet.

And he's not anticipating it has to end like this. We can pray. We can call on him.

We can intercede. We can ask God to go to work, go to war. Because our day is in desolation.

Our day is in trouble. But we are still here. And we are here to lift our voices.

We are here to press. We are here to pray because prayer reaches every single situation. Join the movement.

Join the community. Like, share and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook.

Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you.

It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.